Report: Perpetrator of Paris attack visited Turkey last year

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / Judiciary Police Officers tend to the body of a suspect lying under a white sheet in a sealed off area of the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, on June 19, 2017 , after a car crashed into a police van before bursting into flames, with the driver being armed, probe sources said.
A car burst into flames after it crashed into a police van on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on June 19, police and investigators said, adding that the driver was armed and it appeared to be a "deliberate" act. An interior ministry spokesman said the driver was "very likely dead". / AFP PHOTO / Thomas SAMSON

The perpetrator of an attack in central Paris on Monday had been to Turkey many times in 2016 and had gone to France through Turkey, according to a statement made by the Paris Prosecutor’s Office, CNN Türk reported on Thursday.

The perpetrator, who died in the incident, left a letter to his brother-in-law declaring his allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), reported the Diken news website.

The attacker, whose car hit a police vehicle before bursting into flames on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, was on a security watch list. A Kalashnikov rifle, handguns and gas canisters were found in his car.